Photos of the day 12/17

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A boy has his photo taken with a dog outside Newtown Youth Academy, where children were able to meet with friends and participate in activities in Newtown, Conn., days after the town was shattered by the massacre of 20 young schoolchildren and six adults. Joshua Lott/Reuters

Skaters enjoy the ice at the Tower of London ice rink in London. Toby Melville/Reuters

Syrians warm themselves at a refugee camp in Azaz, Syria. Thousands of Syrian refugees who fled their homes due to fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters and government forces are facing cold weather as temperatures dropped. Manu Brabo/AP

Ruling party African National Congress (ANC) delegates sing and dance as they gesture for a second term for their president, Jacob Zuma, during their elective conference at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The ANC announced that there would be only two candidates contesting to be the party’s president: current President Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe. Jerome Delay/AP

People hold hands in a bar near Sandy Hook Elementary School as President Barack Obama speaks in Newtown, Conn., Sunday night. Obama consoled the town shattered by the massacre of 20 young schoolchildren, lauding residents' courage in the face of tragedy and saying the United States was not doing enough to protect its children. Eric Thayer/Reuters

People look at damaged vehicles after a bomb blast in the Pakistani tribal area of Khybe. A car bomb exploded outside the women's waiting area of a government office in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region, killing many people and wounding others. Mohammed Sajjad/AP

One of 920 babies baptized during a mass ceremony in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi, Georgia. Shakh Aivazov/AP

A relative pays tribute during a prayer service before the burial of nurse Jacintha Saldanha at a church in her hometown, Shirva, in southwest India. Nurse Saldanha was found hanging in her room days after she had been duped by a hoax call from an Australian radio station about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge. Rafiq Maqbool/AP

Egyptians read notes and messages in Arabic in Tahrir Square, Cairo. Egypt's political crisis shows no signs of abating as the opposition to the country's Islamist government levels new challenges against the legitimacy of a referendum on a draft constitution. Petr David Josek/AP

Members of voluntary welfare organizations launch their wishing spheres into the Singapore River. Some 20,000 spheres carrying the New Year wishes of people all over Singapore have been released onto the river as part of the coming New Year's Day celebrations. Edgar Su/Reuters

A Connecticut State Police tactical team gathers while searching near an elementary school in a lockdown in Ridgefield, Conn., after a suspicious person was seen near a nearby train station. Charles Krupa/AP

Supporters of South Korean presidential candidate Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party wear Santa Claus costumes and dance during her election campaign rally in Suwon, South Korea. Park heads into Wednesday's presidential election under the weight of history. Not only is she the daughter of dictator Park Chung-hee who ruled with ruthless efficiency for 18 years, but she's trying to win power in a country still dominated by men. Lee Jin-man/AP

Church steeples are silhouetted against the active Tungurahua volcano, seen from Huambalo, Ecuador. The country's National Geophysics Institute says that a constant plume of gas and ash is rising about half a mile above the crater, with ash falling on nearby communities. Dolores Ochoa/AP

A security guard stands in front of the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft as it is lifted to its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft, which will carry US astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station on December 19. The air temperature dropped to minus 25.6 degrees Fahrenheit in Baikonur. Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters

Policemen run during a rehearsal for an anti-terrorism drill at a subway station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. More than 900 personnel participated in the exercise ahead of the opening of a new subway line in Wuhan. China Daily/Reuters

A man holds a Venezuelan flag as supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rally in support of his health in front of Mexico City's Monument to the Revolution. Chavez has recovered 'full intellectual capacity' after a six-hour cancer operation in Cuba this week, an official said on Saturday, but offered few details on the socialist firebrand's physical condition. Henry Romero/Reuters

Indian Sadhus, or Hindu holy men, offer garlands to the river Ganges during a prayer ceremony for the success of the Mahakhumbh festival in Allahabad, India. Millions of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take part in the large religious congregation on the banks of Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, during the festival in January and February 2013. Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

A woman with three children rides an electric bicycle outside a kindergarten in Ruzhou county in China's central Henan province. The majority of the 24 children aged between two to five who attend the village's kindergarten spend most of their childhood living with their grandparents as their parents seek better working opportunities in big cities like Beijing and Hangzhou. Aly Song/Reuters

A woman lights candles while visiting a memorial to the victims of the recent shooting in Sandy Hook Village in Newtown, Conn. Lucas Jackson/Reuters

A diver dressed in a Santa Claus outfit swims next to leopard sharks at Siam Ocean World during the Christmas season in Bangkok, Thailand. Sukree Sukplang/Reuters

Sri Lanka's Chanaka Welagedara appeals unsuccessfully against Australia's Michael Hussey during the fourth day of play in the first test cricket match at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Australia. David Gray/Reuters

Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi greets his supporters after casting his vote in the second phase of the state assembly elections in Ahmadabad, India. Ninety-five seats go for polls in the second and last phase of the elections in which 19.8 million voters will decide the fate of 820 candidates including Modi, who is seeking his third term. Ajit Solanki/AP

Emergency workers remove snow from around a trapped car after blizzards hit the western Ukrainian city of Brody. The Emergency Situations Ministry and the army were deployed to rescue people. About 2,000 vehicles stuck on roads were freed from the snow during the past 24 hours. Marian Striltsiv/Reuters

A herd of adult and baby elephants walks in the dawn light through Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya. Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, which is in neighboring Tanzania, is seen in the background. Ben Curtis/AP

Fighters from the moderate Ahlu Sunna forces control a road block outside Mareergur town in central Somalia. Feisal Omar/Reuters

Employees work on products that will be exported to southeast Asia at a garment factory in Huaibei, Anhui province, China. Reuters

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick runs past fans as he leaves the field after defeating the New England Patriots 41-34 in an NFL football game in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday night. Elise Amendola/AP

Christina Christian, a newly married bride, casts her ballot as her husband, Kinjan Tailor, stands beside a polling booth during the second phase of the Gujarat state elections in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. The words on the cardboard read: 'Polling center.' Amit Dave/Reuters

On Friday, Russia's sports ministry denied accusations of state-sponsored doping that implicate more than 1,000 athletes across more than 30 sports in sample swapping, tampering with samples, and taking steroid cocktails designed to evade Olympic testing.